Sorry about the lack of a post earlier today. Brennan #2 did great at the speech meet. Her speed, however, knocked her out of the running for blue ribbons, LOL. She normally talks fast (Hmmm, wonder where she gets that from?) but when she’s nervous, she talks in double-time. Still, she read a complex and challenging section of her book and still did very well. I’m very proud of her for standing up in front of a room full of strangers and speaking. Now, if you haven’t read Deb’s post below . . . read it! It dovetails on Jen’s… Read More

I wanted to add to Deb’s fabulous post from yesterday, but I was out the door at 6 am this morning to take my daughter to Karin’s old stomping grounds of Fremont. I’m currently waiting for the speech meet to start–Brennan #2 is going a dramatic reading from A GREAT AND TERRIBLE BEAUTY by Libba Bray. So I’ll comment when I get back . . . But in the meantime, I have a post over at Romancing the Blog today about Hands On Research if you want to check it out. So come back later today for some general comments… Read More

Last week I asked for help with a title for my FBI series. Yeah, I know, book titles alone are hard enough! But a series title? I’m cruel, what can I say? As a reminder, the first book of the series is SUDDEN DEATH: “Burn the book” mercenary Jack Kincaid is forced to team with “by the book” FBI Agent Megan Elliott to stop a killer targeting soldiers with ties to Jack’s mysterious past. I’m still looking, but here are some of the ideas that came out of that post . . . and some of my own brainstorming. There… Read More

Karin, get your mind out of the gutter!!! Geez . . . Okay, I’m late . . . Brennan #1 had a physical therapy appointment early this morning for her jaw. Last night was the first night I was in bed before 3 am. Yes, I’m in the middle of revisions for PLAYING DEAD. We’re not in urgent slam time, but I’m doing a quick second round of clean up because I made so many big changes in the revisions. Such is my life . . . BUT, I’m really excited about this story now! I hated it for so… Read More

We constantly hear about the dire state of reading in this country. The NEA report (pdf) says: Although there has been measurable progress in recent years in reading ability at the elementary school level, all progress appears to halt as children enter their teenage years. There is a general decline in reading among teenage and adult Americans. I skimmed the report and thought some of their predictions were rather exaggerated–but that’s not surprising since the rely on the donations of individuals and government money to fund their organization, so if all is rosy or if the trends aren’t devastating, they… Read More

Sorry I’m late this morning. If you check out my blog yesterday at the Fog City Divas, you’ll realize that everything is happening at once this week, so I’m a little unfocused! But there’s something I want to talk about that’s very important to writers. While you may think this is primarily an unpublished writer problem, it can affect published authors as well. This morning on one of my many email loops, one unpublished writer lamented that she would start writing but she couldn’t get past the first chapter or two because she kept thinking of better ways to say… Read More

Frequent MSW visitor Elisabeth Naughton emailed me the other day with the BEST news . . . she’s accepted a THREE BOOK DEAL for romantic adventures from Dorchester!!! (The first book is her Golden Heart finalist from 2007!) Check out Elisabeth’s website and wish her a big congratulations!!!

Last night hubby and I went out to dinner to celebrate 4 weeks on the NYT list (the last three on the extended list, but hey! I’ll take it!) So we didn’t get home until late, and now it’s time to get the kids off to school. Usually on days like this where I don’t write my post the night before, I come back home and write something up, then go to Starbucks to write. But today . . . . . . I’m going to the gym. At 9 am there is a “Quickfit” class and my trainer (yes,… Read More

Yesterday at the Fog City Divas, I blogged about ideas and posted a question, what would you ask an author? Published author Terry Odell commented that it depended who the author was, but she was interested in whether to write a series or connected books and how that really works. I answered her question, but it interested me enough that I think it deserves a full blog post of the pros and cons and considerations of each. 1) Stand Alone Novel: A novel that is wholly contained with original, non-series characters and a complete story arc. Examples: Michael Connelly’s THE… Read More

Last Friday, thanks to my friend and romantic suspense author Brenda Novak and Anna S., I joined them and another friend Regan T. on a tour of the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office. They do not regularly give tours, so this was an extra special treat. Though I have always wanted to be a writer, there was a time when Quincy, MD was popular that I wanted to be a forensic pathologist. I thought it would be really cool to figure out how people died . . . and of course to solve crimes on the side. But in eighth grade,… Read More